Festival Day 2: Main Themes

…

Link and Line spent a couple hours telling The Sokkarokka Band about their lives on the Grand Sails. There were occasional interruptions when the band members asked a question. Or when Spakky, the group's drummer, decided to add in commentary with a witty sting or roll. Link gave them some of the more technical details of their job while Line shared some of their experiences. Both of them chimed in about some of the trouble they have been in, usually because they were arguing who had been to blame. The band appeared thrilled, and Lukka and Trikky seemed to hang onto every word.

Line just finished telling his side of the story where Link attacked him with a fire blanket. He wrapped it up by saying, "And, well, here we are. On Castle Island. Enjoying a festival."

"You forgot to mention last night," Link told him.

Line glared at him. "Yes, I did. And so will you."

"It's not a big deal," Link said. "You already told them about the last time we were at Sail Tavern."

Line turned back to their listeners and, with a dismissive wave of his hand, told them, "Same thing, different barkeep."

Kookka, a young man wearing a bright orange shirt and worn trousers, chuckled and ran a hand over his bald head. "Just like my love life." Spakky punctuated with his usual sting, ba bum, tshhh.

"Yes, I do miss that ponytail you wore for so long," Trikky, a sickly-looking woman sitting next to Kookka, said as she rubbed his head.

Lukka, the unofficial leader sitting next to Link and Line, started tapping his ankle against the stone floor. "Dudes, I got a beat."

Spakky, a slightly round man wearing a brown tunic and a red body suit, struck his drumsticks together. When all eyes turned to him, he leaned forward and started rapping a march on his snare drum. He played for what felt like a long moment before stopping and nodding at the rest of the group.

"Dude, I like it," Lukka said. "Now I wanna love it." He glanced around at the other band members. "Can someone buy me some love?"

"There's a brothel just down the road," Pokka, Spakky's brother, said while Talukka, the larger of the two women, stood up from her seat. Ba bum tshhh.

"You know what I mean," Lukka told Pokka.

"Hey, Spakky," Talukka called across the room as she picked up a violin. "Buy me that march again." Spakky played again, and Talukka shouldered the violin. She listened, and then she tried to start playing. She managed two long notes, and then stopped. She played three more notes and stopped again, a frustrated look on her face. "This is weirder than I felt."

"You want himma stop?" Lukka asked.

"No, no, I'll get it," she said. Then she called over the drum, "Spakky." Spakky stopped playing and looked at her. "Maybe… can you cut some of those middle beats and give me a little more rolling." Spakky scrunched his face. Then he began playing again with more empty space between beats and more frequent rolling. "No, no," Talukka interrupted. "I can't work with that, either." Spakky responded by striking his cymbals, creating an echoing racket through the room. "Hey, hey! Just smooth it out, okay?" Spakky answered by giving his drumsticks a rap and beating his bass drum a couple of times. "Just go backka the first one, I feel I got it."

Spakky started playing the march again. Talukka took a moment to find a beat to jump in on, and then she started playing. However, in contrast to the rapid, almost irregular notes Spakky played, her violin gave off a long, slow string of notes. At first, the sounds did not seem to mesh together. Then Talukka changed to a set of low notes, and the contrast started to appeal to Link and Line. They played for a few minutes before Talukka concluded her violin sound, causing Spakky to drop his march.

Lukka nodded at Talukka. "Beautiful body," he said. "Now we need a face and a voice."

"Let's use Gorkka's face," Pokka said. "He's the only one who hasn't been slapped before."

Spakky performed a ba-bum bum bum on his bass drum. Kookka shook his head. "Pokka," he said, "uncool, man."

"Of course it was," Pokka said. "I was bein' serious."

"Hey, Pokka," Pea spoke up. "What about heading Talukka's notes with your own?" Spakky nodded, using his sticks to indicate his face. Then he pumped out a strong beat on his drums. "'Charge of the Cattle'?"

"'Charge of the Cattle'?" Kookka repeated. "As a base?"

"I can do that," Lukka said as he and Pokka stood.

"'Charge of the Cattle'?" Link asked. "What's that?"

"Notes we felt up when we were on Rake Island," Lukka said as he retrieved a violin at the foot of Kanowanotakka's (the only member of the group sleeping) bunk. "We were on a ranch, tryin' for some notes, and Kookka and Pea got caught in a stampede."

Line suppressed a burst of laughter with his hand. "A… a stampede?" he asked through his hand.

"Spakky started it," Pokka said as he pulled another violin from the cases against the wall behind Spakky. Tom bam ba-bum, Spakky played. "Yes, you did." Tom bam ba-bum. "Yes you did; you thought it was funny." Spakky grinned at the boys, his waggling eyebrows suggesting that he had thought it was funny.

"Spakky hit a cymbal, and we were haulin' our fun-lovin' buns across the island," Kookka said.

Both Lukka and Pokka shouldered their violins and met each other's glances. Then they started playing a fast, high-pitched rhythm. Looks passed between the band members until Spakky interrupted them by bashing one of his cymbals. "What?" Pokka asked him. "I felt we were goin' for the face." Spakky shook his head. Then he rapped on his snare drum, first fast, then slow. "Go slower," Pokka said. Spakky nodded. Then he rapped out a beat on his snare, Ta ta. Ta da-da-da-da-da. "You want uzza start slower, and then faster." Spakky nodded and then replayed the sample with more drums, Bum bum. Tam da-da-da-da tshh-p. "Lower, then higher?"

"I feel I see where Spakky's goin' with this," Kookka said, standing. He continued to talk as he walked over to the stage door and unpacked a trumpet, "He's got the contrast of the march and Talukka's violin, and then we got substance with ya guys."

"I get it," Pea said as he reached behind his seat and picked up the trumpet he had been cleaning earlier. "And Kookka and I can cap those high notes."

"Just hope it sounds as smooth as my head," Lukka said.

"Be better if it was Kookka's head," Gorkka said. Ba bum tshhh.

"Do you need us to move?" Link asked.

"Nah, stay there," Lukka said, waving his violin bow at them. "We want ya boyzza listen." Then he pointed the bow at Spakky. "Take it away."

Spakky began his march again.

Then the stage door slammed open, startling Kookka. "Guys!" their boss shouted. Spakky turned to him and started smacking the cymbals of his kit in anger, causing the man to shout over the sound, "Where's my playlist!?"

A fist-sized rock sailed out of nowhere and slammed against the door the boss had just opened. "Shuddup!" Kanowanotakka hollered from his bunk under the stairs. "I'm tryinna sleep, ya fat piece of cow pie!" The boss had slammed the door shut in panic before the oldest of the group could finish his insult. "What the hell's wrong with ya!?"

Line's snort turned into a full-blown guffaw, and he fell on his back laughing. "And that's why you don't get between Kanowanotakka and his five-hour naps," Lukka said, trying not to laugh as hard. The other band members were also in various states of laughter, including Spakky who was emphasizing his silent fit by smacking his floor tom.

"Okay, okay," Pokka said. "Let's-Let's get backka it before we forget."

Kookka slid a nearby board into the handles of the stage doors. "Okay, folks," he said as he picked up his trumpet. "Any time you're ready, Spakky."

Spakky glanced around at the group, a comically serious look on his face. Then he started the march again. Talukka began her violin, and then Lukka and Pokka jumped in with a blast of violin that reached its height when Kookka and Pea added in their trumpets.

Link and Line went on to watch the band play that evening and enjoyed a much more dignified session than they had witnessed only a couple hours earlier. Although the song was not part of the performance, both boys walked back to the Grand Sails singing the tune the group was inspired to make.

"Doot dooooo. Dooo doo-doo-doo-doo DOOOO…"